SS3 had that cool invincible Arachnoid as DRM, so what will SS4 use as DRM? Game-crashing Reptiloid? Fake error messages when trying to click anything? Beheaded Rocketeers eloquently insulting your female parental unit? or Harpies that teleports you into a 16x16x16 room with all wall textures replaced with naked dancing Scrapjacks?

I always thought that a funny little piece of DRM would be to max out Super Sample Anti-aliasing and locking that setting. The rest of the game is still "playable," just not with a pleasant framerate. Though, that would probably be way too easy to get around.

Another DRM method could be Kleers with homing ball & chains that will insta-kill Sam and crash the game.

I always thought that a funny little piece of DRM would be to max out Super Sample Anti-aliasing and locking that setting. The rest of the game is still "playable," just not with a pleasant framerate. Though, that would probably be way too easy to get around.

Another DRM method could be Kleers with homing ball & chains that will insta-kill Sam and crash the game.

That gives me an idea. An invincible Kleer that will cause heavy screen rumbling (like the GTA 4 DRM, but much worse) and chainballs that will spawn more enemies until the engine can't take it.

Or maybe subtle things like voluntary screen lagging and crashing the game when you reached the final level and deleting the save file. Anything that will take more than 2 months for pirates to patch = success for developers, as proven with that Spyro game.

The best DRM are the ones that remind the pirates they are dirty little pirates, so maybe an infinite wave of a certain enemy that shouts out "PIRACY IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD"?

at some point in the first level: permacrouch. no jumping or autostepping up to slightly higher elevations. activate an infinite kleer spawner. the player will likely not have anything more powerful than a single shotgun or a melee weapon at this point, and will revel in the one ride that never ends

Heres one crazy DRM protection for SS4. Whatabout when the player gets to a certain point, the game corrupts several randomly picked files with a chunk id validation error that's not in use, or maybe even corrupting a level, (with the engine allowing the files to be modified in run-time, or maybe starts up a new hidden app that will corrupt certain game files after the game has shut down) . When the game starts up again he/she probably won't be able to play it again and will end up having to copy the files over again, eventually forcing them to buy the game
That, alongside the things you guys came up with..

And maybe when you look in one file and open it with a hex editor it could say "If you don't want this to happen and keep playing, buy Serious Sam and support Croteam!!!"

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Originally Posted by PikaCommando

Or maybe subtle things like voluntary screen lagging and crashing the game when you reached the final level and deleting the save file. Anything that will take more than 2 months for pirates to patch = success for developers, as proven with that Spyro game.

Instead of the final level, what about the first boss in the game? So the game doesn't reveal much anyway and pirates can't get past a certain point. Like "If you want to continue to beat the game, please buy me!".

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The secret file corruption may not be noticable, as SS4 would scan for random files and corrupt them secretly without the player knowing. Eventually after 2-4 plays the game might fail to start, or the level will start to fail, without it saying what the culprit file is.

Perhaps the game should start to a scene where a Beheaded Rocketeer or such sits in an electrin chair and is shocked repeatedly, screaming. The screen should slowly fade to a message saying "Help us stop the martian abuse. Please buy the game. (Obviously that will not end their torture, but who gives a crap)". And then the game would crash, possibly corrupting some of the files.

the player can always use the noclip cheat though to get around that, unless you cannot activate cheats on SS4 DRM. And what happens when you write 'god' is that your health goes to 1 and nothing happens. Writing 'give all' and all your weapons/ammo are gone except your fists, and you are unable to pick up any weapons. Noclip would turn off collision

In an unprecedented move.. Croteam has released yet another update! I'm not sure what to think on this one considering..

Serious Sam 4

Location: Planet Pechina, Arachnid homeworld

Following the award-winning success of Serious Sam 3: BFE, franchise developer, Croteam, has revealed the setting for its next game, Serious Sam 4: Not Egypt. In the words of Roman Ribaric, CEO, Croteam, the game will focus on the two most highly successful and praised features of the franchise: sand and enemies with hit-scan weapons.

"We love our fans and we have heard their pleas," said Ribaric. "so.. SS4 will not be taking place in Egypt. Instead Sam will travel to the homeworld of his arch-nemeses the Arachnoids to destroy their hit-scan weapons factories and turn the tide of the war."

"Free boobjob with every 10,000 units sold," piped in Fork Parker, the venerable badass from Devolver Digital. "And if you give $100 at the inevitable Humble Bundle sale you can get an interview with me to pitch your awesome game ideas!"

Serious Sam 4 is planned to be released this Thanksgiving with a special 0-day DLC player model pack with a Golden Huff, Golden Fork, and Holiday Kaze for early-access subscribers.